We're Jennifer and Jonathan, makers of modern art canvas prints for children at FatandAppy.com. Jonathan is the author + illustrator of four children's books published by Penguin USA. Jennifer is a novelist and the author of ThePenzy.com.

Menu

A New Wooden Desk in the Family Room

I’m happy to report our family room makeover is complete. Today, I’ll show you the corner desk Jonathan and I collaborated on. A little backstory: I don’t have a proper desk in our house. We have a desk in the living room where Jonathan works, and I mooch off of his space when he’s not working. It’s an arrangement that we started once I quit my social media job back in April. So, we’ve kind of limped along, me working when he’s not. We know we need a permanent solution (finish the basement? rent a studio offsite?) but for now, we’re winging it.

That’s how I came to the “what should I do with that corner in the family room?” You might remember that the “Before” family room looked like this:

Check out the back corner on the right—that space to the right of the red rocking chair. I knew I could put something there special, and it finally hit me: a DESK! My own desk, lah.

Jonathan is Mr. Frugal and when he heard I was looking at $300 West Elm Parsons desks (he heard because I said, “Honey, I think I’ll put a Parsons desk here!”), he went into DIY mode. Love my man.

We picked up a cheap piece of oak plywood from Lowes (about $15) and some thin oak strips to give the cheapie board a nice edge. Then, we used the paint we had for the open bookshelves, Benjamin Moore Storm Cloud Gray color matched to Olympic No-VOC Premiere paint in semi-gloss. (You can read all about those shelves in our recent shelf bracket DIY post.)

First, Jonathan attached the thin trim strips to the front and one side of the desk (the back and other side would touch the wall, so they didn’t need trim.) He pre-drilled the holes (to keep the wood from splitting) and used deck screws and wood glue. Then, he propped it up in our indoor/outdoor woodworking shop. (Otherwise known as a “garage.”) It was now my turn!

Jonathan countersunk the screws for me, leaving a little hole to fill with Plastic Wood. I scooped some up with a spackle knife and swiped it on. The Plastic Wood tends to sink, so I did this twice after letting the first application dry. We did all of this so the trim edge would be smooth with no bumpiness from the nails.

After that second application, the hole was nice and flush. I sanded it well.

I then brought the desk top into the house and primed it, using the Valspar Bare Wood primer we used for the open shelves. I also primed the two Parson legs I bought from Lowes. They were about $9 a piece and are made of a solid hardwood. Pretty and simple. We just needed two because the back of the desk was designed to rest on little rails. More on that later.

The next day, I moved on, painting the legs with the gray paint. This is my favorite picture. Of course, we have peanut butter on the floor. Don’t you? (True story: Our 17-month-old toddler will go into the pantry, take out food and leave it on the floor. She’ll sit down beside it, as if to say, “I like to eat, people. So, why aren’t you feeding me NOW?”)

I painted the desk top, using the roller. I like the even coverage and it’s faster (for me, anyway). Gray happiness!

At this point, Jonathan jumped back in and attached the leg brackets. This was pretty cheap—I think a few dollars each. We bought two, of course.

And here’s a shot of the table leg, masterfully painted, don’t you think?

Jonathan carefully measured and mounted the poplar support rails, pre-drilling the holes before attaching them to the wall.

Using a level, he made sure the desk top was level before attaching the desk to the rails (from underneath, so the screws wouldn’t show, and, once again pre-drilling the holes).

And after drying and arranging, here it is:

Sources:

Orange chair: Storehouse

Desk, custom: (read this post!)

Art: Sweet Pea in Blue and Fast Car, both by Fat and Appy™ Modern Art for Children (this is our line of modern art prints on canvas). Canvas of rock and tree with silver frame: original still-life painted by Jonathan Fenske.

This is a tincut from the Georgia folk artist R.A. Miller. This is the first piece of art I ever bought. I was 18. I still adore it.

So, that’s the path from boring blah spot to my own little corner and my own little chair! I’m really happy to sit there, work, organize and kind of just daydream sometime.

What’s next? Pictures of the entire room so you can see how our family room makeover turned out! I was held up a little by some long days of cloud coverage (photos with a flash drive me crazy, and I wanted to spare you that). Also: I picked up a Queen Anne-style coffee table and painted it, so that took a few days. It’s in the new room and I wanted to debut that cutie pie table here. So, soon and very soon!